Method and apparatus for arrangement of furniture



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A TTORNEVS.

May 16, 1961 s. LEVITAS A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ARRANGEMENT OF FURNITURE Filed Aug. 1a, 1958 y 1961 s. LEVITAS 2,984,020

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ARRANGEMENT OF FURNITURE! Filed Aug. 18, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 'METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ARRANGENIENT OF FURNITURE Stephen Levitas, 21 w. Illinois, Chicago, n1.

Filed Aug. 18, 1958, Ser. No. 755,784

3 Claims. CI. 35-53 This invention relates to aidispla'y device forillustrat- 'ing diiferent arrangements of'furniture in a. room. The invention makes possible the representation of many different arrangements in a three-dimensional drawing, such as an isometric projection. Heretofore in decorating and furniture supply houses different furniture arrangements were usually presented to a customer visually by cutting out paper outlines of the pieces in plan view and placing them in different positions on a floor plan of the room, house or oifice suite. From a plan it is difficult to visualize just what the room actually will look like.

on the spot but must be prepared in advance. Also, the customer is not able to rearrange the pieces should. he 'desire to try some arrangement different. from that shown in the drawing.

It is the primary object of the present inventionwto' provide adisplay device which has the mobility oftherfloor plan cut-outs as well as the life-like accuracy of an isometric drawing of the room.

Another object is to provide'a method for making isometric pictures of furniture arrangements by laying a sheet of paper over an assembled base display in relief and rubbing the surface of the paper with a graphite stick or crayon to reproduce the raised portions of the base display.

In accordance with the present invention each piece of furniture to be displayed is drawn as an isometric projection on a strip of rather heavy paper or light cardboard near one end thereof. The drawing takes the form of heavy lines deposited from India ink or adhered plastic ribbons which are raised above the surface of the paper strip, thus bringing the piece in relief. The remainder of the strip is plain and serves as a handle to manipulate the drawn representation of the piece of furniture. The strips are then secured to a board having the outline of the walls and floor of a room drawn thereon in relief. The strip is placed on the base board in such a way that the drawing on the end thereof is disposed at the desired location within the room. By manipulating various strips, each bearing the representation of a different piece of furniture on the end thereof, the pieces may be arranged in different order. The strips may be overlapped or superimposed except for the end portion which bears the picture.

For a detailed description of one form of the invention, reference is made to the following description and ;the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Patented May 16, 1961 Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a display device constructed in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a similar view of the base board alone lined toshow the floor of the room;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the assembled device of Figure l with a sheet of paper laid thereover showing the marking stick being rubbed on the surface to duplicate the representation of the assembled pieces on the Figure 4 is an elevational view of the right edge of the "device shown in Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a plan view of one of the strips carrying the representation of the piece of furniture; and

Figure 6 is a section taken along the line 6--.6 or

Figure 5.

The base board 10, shown in Figure 2, may be made from any suitable material which is fairly rigid and not too heavy. For example, a sheet of aluminum, wood, cellulose board, Masonite, or heavy cardboard would serve very well for this purpose. Appropriately spaced about the margin of the baseboard 10 are a pluralityof openings 12 which are adapted to receive flat spring clips 14. The clips extend through the opening and are adapted to hold the individual strips on which the pieces of furniture are drawn and to locate and hold down the overlayed paper on which the final arrangement is duplicated. The clips 14 may be placedwherever convenient.

. Drawn on the surface of the board is an isometricview of a typical floor of a room having marginal boundaries 16 and 18 which meet the walls. If desired, additional lines 18a, b, etc. and 16a, b, etc. may be drawn parallel to the lines 16 and 1 8 at regular'spaced intervals. These will assist in determining the size of the room and the space between the furniture pieces. Such lines may conveniently be drawn to a scale wherein one inch represents a foot or any other convenient scale. The lines 16 and .18 are applied to the board bymeans of heavy India ink or paint, or plastic adhesive ribbons that project above the plane of the board 10. Thus, these lines are reproduced when the paper is placed overthe final assembly and rubbed with the graphite stick. The base board. may be appropriately colored to show how the walls and the floor of the room might be colored or decorated.

The furniture pieces-which are to be assembled on the base board 10 to illustrate various arrangements are preferably drawn on or connected to paper strips which are designated by the numerals 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28 in Figure 1. Each one of these strips has the three-dimensional representation of a difierent piece of furniture drawn on the end thereof. The strip 30 differs from the others in that the piece of furniture is a desk which extends substantially at right angles to the strip and is considerahly longer than the Width of the strip. The left end of the desk, as shown in Figure 1, is intended to be parallel with the wall behind it. It will be obvious that this desk can be moved to any position along the wall by manipulating the strip to which it is attached. The three-dimensional drawing of the desk may be prepared on a separate piece of paper or it may be integral with the strip handle. In each piece the lines which define the various parts of the piece are raised so that the outline will stand out in relief against the surface of the strip or the paper on which it is drawn. This is best illustrated in Figures 5 and 6. The strip 36 has a cabinet containing three drawers drawn in isometric projection on the end thereof. The lines in relief are indicated by the numeral 40. The parallel lines defining the front of the cabinet are designated by the numerals 40a, b, 0, etc. and the manner in which they stand up from the base is best shown in Figure 6. One convenient way to produce the raised lines 40 is by applying narrow ribbons -cabinet is aligned with the corner of the room. 'sembling the room as shown in Figure 1, strip is of cellophane or the like having adhesive on one side thereof. The cellophane may be of any desired color.

A plurality of strips of this kind are assembled as shown in Figure 1 to produce a three-dimensional representation of the room. Strip 20 carries a corner cabinet which, it will be noted, is slightly larger than the width of the strip itself, which runs across the right-hand side of the base board on the line 16. The corner of the In asplaced in position first. Then the strip 22 is superimposed thereon with the drawer cabinet aligned with the 'wall along the line 16. Strip 24, which has a bin cabinet drawn on the end thereof, is next stacked over strips 20 and 22 with the bin cabinet aligned with the other two pieces. When each successive strip is applied, the exposed end of the piece on the strip immediately beneath is covered over. Likewise, another drawer cabinet 26 is placed in position. It will be readily understood that by manipulating the handle ends at the right end of each of these pieces just described, the pieces may be rearranged in any desired manner. The clip 14 on the right side of the board serves to secure the strips in position. A door 28 is also produced in strip form and may be moved to duplicate the location of the door in the actual room. Similar strips may be used for placing pieces of furniture along the left wall of the room as viewed in Figure 1. Such a strip is designated by the numeral 23.

Although the drawings illustrate the arrangement of furniture in an office, it will be understood that the same technique may be employed in producing a device for furniture arrangements in homes, particularly to illustrate arranging furniture along a wall.

In preparing the isometric drawing of the room after all of the pieces have been assembled, a sheet of paper 32, as shown in Figure 3, is slipped under the clips 14 at the top of the base board and the crayon or graphite stick 34 is rubbed over the surface of each of the pieces. The marking device preferably should have a flat marking surface. Because the outline of each piece is raised, an exact duplication of the arrangement is reproduced on the surface of the paper. The raised lines, of course, produce a much more intense color than the depressed portions surrounding them. By this very simple and eificient method a three-dimensional drawing may be produced for the customer within a few minutes. The sheet 32 may then be removed and the furniture pieces rearranged in another position. A new sheet is then placed over the revised arrangement and by proceeding in the same manner a second drawing is prepared showing this revised arrangement. In this way any number of drawings can be made up while-the customer is waiting and in accordance with his directions. Thus, the device and method of the invention provide a greatly improved means of producing three-dimensional representations of rooms showing various furniture arrangements.

Other variations in the construction of the strips and the method in which they cooperate with the base board will become apparent to those who are skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope of this invention. -It is, therefore, my intention not to limit the invention other than as necessitated by the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A device for illustrating different arrangements of furniture pieces within a room which comprises a base board, a representation of the wall and floor of a room drawn isometrically on said board, a plurality of strips, each bearing a raised image of a piece of furniture near one end thereof, the other end thereof extending to the margin of said baseboard, said strips being superimposed in a stack with each succeeding strip in said stack being set over longitudinally to expose the representation of the furniture piece on the strip beneath, thereby producing an arrangement of aligned adjacent pieces, and means for securing said other ends of said stacked strips to said base board.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said representation of a room contains spaced guide lines on the floor portion parallel with the intersection of the walls and the floor.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein said securing means constitutes spring clips attached to said margin of the base board.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,129,573 Johnson Feb. 23, 1915 1,187,881 Armstrong June 20, 1916 1,845,240 Cook Feb. 16, 1932 1,887,163 Lorber Nov. 8, 1932 1,942,339 Lawrence Ian. 2, 1934 2,686,980 Carter Aug. 24, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 213,349 Great Britain Apr. 3, 1924 

